Quake 4: The Failed Transfers
by GIRLIKESTACOS
Summary: A group of four survivors of stroggification must escape and return to the SMC. Action heavy and violent. Please rate and comment.  Cancelled due to problems.
1. Captured

The mission had gone completely wrong. PFC Jamie Matthews had been on a mission with Badger Squad to destroy a Strogg munitions facility, when him and his squad were ambushed by them during the infiltration. Half of the squad was killed, while the other half was captured, including him. He had heard scary things about the Stroggification Facilities, things too horrible to describe. He was frightened beyond belief. He prayed silently to himself, thinking about his parents.

During the initial invasion of Earth by the Strogg, my neighborhood was hit hard by the Strogg. I was the only survivor. When I came of age, I joined the SMC in hopes of getting revenge against the Strogg bastards who killed my family. This was supposed to be my first combat mission, but it was cut short. Turns out my wish was going to be less than successful, considering I was going to become what I had come here to kill. Irony is a bitch.

I couldn't tell who else had been captured. My vision was too blurred to see anything of detail, but I could tell at least three other men in my squad were captured. I blacked out not soon after.

…

When I woke up, I was half-naked on what looked like an assembly line. I was on some sort of medical rig, unable to move even though I was not strapped down. They must have paralyzed me. I came up to a big machine, which someone was in at the moment. When the machine was finished, there was no harm done to the man in front of me from what I could tell.

I was moved into the machine, bracing for the worst. The machine closed in on me, and scanned me with some sort of medical lasers. I was relived when I emerged from the machine unharmed, and continued on the assembly line. I saw the next stop on my trip wasn't going to be nearly as painless as the last one.

The next station was stabbing people in the chest with a giant hypodermic needle.

"_Jesus Christ, help me._" I thought to myself.

After the person in front of me received his injections, I was moved into position.

"_Oh dear god..._"

The needle plunged into my chest, as I yelled at the top of my lungs. It felt as if someone had just shot me for a moment, then the pain dissipated at the steroids started taking affect. I knew the pain was still there as blood poured out of the wound in my chest. And after that painful experience, I was moved along the line.

The next station looked even more horrifying than the last one. A giant saw blade was cutting off people's legs. Cutting off their fucking legs.

"Oh god, someone please help me!" I yelled with no avail.

As the person in front of me was finished with his forced amputation, I moved up on the line.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I yelled as the blade descended on my legs. The pain I experienced next too extreme to describe. It was the worst pain I had ever suffered in my life. As my legs were cut off, they were at the same time seared shut to stop the bleeding. I blacked out mere seconds later.

When I woke up, I looked at where my legs were supposed to be and felt like I was going to throw up. I was approaching a machine slamming down on a man's chest and pinning him with a giant spike. Once again, it was my turn.

When I was in position, a set of mechanical arms put cybernetic limbs in place of my old legs, then the metal slab slammed down on my body, and a big spike welded down multiple vectors of the slab, feeling like a million bees were stinging me in the same place with each weld.

When the slab lifted, I saw that I had a Strogg hard suit fused to my body. I looked at my hands, seeing them filled with cybernetics and armor. I could feel my "new" legs now, shaking them slightly. It was both cool and horrifying at the same time, seeing my limbs replaced with this shit. It reminded me of those old sci-fi movies I used to watch as a kid, except it was the real thing and hurt like hell.

The next stop on the ride was a big metal rod with a red light on it stabbing people in the forehead.

I was up next.

I was moved into position as my head was restrained to keep me from fighting. The rod got closer and closer, and then quickly stabbed me in the forehead. I felt like my brain was on fire for a split second, then the pain vanished. I started seeing the text on the control panels in a language I could understand, and I could understand the Strogg voice over the intercom.

"What the fuuuuuccckkkk..." I thought as I passed out once more.

…

When I woke back up, I was suspended in a tank of gel-like substance. I still couldn't move, but I could see what was going on. A giant device was scanning the tanks. When the device scanned the tanks, the occupant stopped struggling and went limp.

That must be the final phase of the trip.

I prayed silently to myself one more time, thinking about my parents one last-

And like that, the power suddenly failed. Everything went dark.

WARNING. POWER FAILURE DETECTED. I heard the facility repeat over and over. I realized that I suddenly could move again. I wasn't going to wait around for the power to restart, so I came up with a plan.

I bashed the tank over and over again with my knee until the glass finally broke open. The gel spilled out as I made the hole bigger, and I crashed onto the floor, coughing up whatever the fuck that stuff was. When I regained my composure, and looked around the room. I could see nothing. It was at that moment, I felt a tingling sensation in my head, and then I could see in the dark.

"Wow, they must have given me some kind of night vision." I thought as I looked around the room.

I was surprised when I heard a loud SMASH. I turned to the source of the sound, and saw someone else had broken out of their tube. It was then I remembered there were three more men with me. I ran over to him, checking to make sure he was OK.

"Hey! Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, *COUGH**COUGH* I'm fine. Who are you?" He asked in a gruff voice.

"PFC Jamie Matthews. Who are you?" I asked quickly.

"Jamie? It's me! Ricky! Ricky Stone!" He yelled.

"Wow, they got you, Ricky? I thought they killed you!" I said, perplexed.

"Yeah, they caught me trying to hack a door to you guys after they cut us off. I never saw them coming." He said with a hint of shame in his voice.

"Can you see?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can now. I have some sort of night vision." He told me.

"Same here." I said as he turned to look at me. We both jumped when we saw each other. Ricky was filled with plugs and hoses, and he had been covered in the same hard suit that I was in.

"I looked like shit too, don't I?" He asked.

"You look like shit, man." I said with humor in my voice.

"Right back at you." He said, rubbing the back of his neck

"Come on, let's see who's left." I said, directing my attention to the two tanks behind us. We found CPL Joe Peterson and Tech Kiva Hamilton were still suspended in their tanks. We broke them out of their tanks and helped revive them.

"Uhh, someone please tell me I just have a nasty hangover or something..." Kiva asked, clutching her forehead.

"Sorry, Kiva. As much as I wish none of that happened, it did." I responded with sadness in my voice.

"Damn. So I'm guessing I look as ugly as you right now?" She asked, staring at me.

"Yep, pretty much." I replied dryly. Damn, she used to be beautiful, now her hair is gone and she's filled with cybernetics. Her armor was slightly different, probably to accommodate her physiology. Fucking Strogg.

"Did anyone else survive?" Joe asked the three of us. He looked like the rest of us, except he was taller than all of us by a head.

"No, we were the only ones I saw being dragged away." I responded sadly. "I think the rest of the squad is dead."

"A squad of 20 heavily armed SMC marines were cut down to four remaining half-stroggified members? This really sucks." He said, slumping against a wall. "Everyone is dead, even the Sarge. Dammit!" He yelled, punching the floor.

"Hey, don't give up hope now! We need to get out of here! The Strogg are going to be here soon. We need to find some weapons, and find away out of here." I said confidently.

"Even if we make it out of here, we're just going to get shot by our fellow marines if they see us." He replied dryly.

"Well, unless you want to hang around here and get captured by the Strogg again, I suggest we get moving." I said, holding out my hand to him.

"Yeah, your right. Lets go. Jamie, you take the lead. I'm not leadership material." He said, grabbing my hand as I hoisted him up. Just like that, the power came back on.

NEUROSIGHT REGISTRATION DISRUPTED. DEPLOYING TACTICAL UNITS." The intercom bellowed.

"Come on, we need to find some weapons!" I yelled as we ran to the door. I was surprised to see it open for us. Kiva was ready to hack it, but she didn't need to now. We must be registered in their system. We left the room, and entered the Stroggification Facility.

...

We came into one room, to find five marines dead.

"They must have been sent here to disrupt this facility. They have some good gear on them." Ricky said, looking over their corpses.

"Look at this! They found one of those Hyperblasters!" I said, grabbing the rifle, finding out the thing weighs a ton. I decided to give it to Joe, since he was the strongest.

"Thanks!" He said, hefting the weapon with little effort.

I found a Railgun with four extra clips it and a blaster. Ricky found a shotgun with a clip upgrade, and took two grenades. Kiva picked up a Machine Gun and six mags to go with it, along with a PDA. In addition to his Hyperblaster, Joe grabbed a Gauntlet from the backpack of one of the soldiers. The relative silence in the room was broken when Kiva yelled "Dammit!" at the top of her lungs.

"What's the matter?" Ricky asked her.

"I can't connect to the Network with my login! I've entered my ID five times, and I still can't get on!" She yelled, clenching her fist. "The Stroggification process must have fucked up my bio signature!"

"Wait, they modified us genetically too? Let me see that thing!" I said, grabbing the PDA and entering my ID.

"Dammit! I can't log on ether!" I yelled, handing the PDA back to Kiva.

"Come on. Maybe we can access the Strogg network from a terminal." Kiva said.

"Sounds like a plan." I said as we took off.

**Author's Notes: This is a secondary story I'm writing to practice writing combat sections. The next few chapters will be heavy on combat, and will be focused on escaping the Stroggification Facility. Mass Effect will be my flagship fiction, but I will write for this story when I need to take a break from Mass Effect. This is GIR, signing out.**


	2. Plan Of Escape

After about an hour of searching, the four of us finally found a Strogg terminal that was connected to their main network. Kiva has been trying to hack into it for the last eight minutes. During that time, the Strogg has made at least two pushes on us.

"Kiva, any luck?" I asked her in a rushed tone.

"I'm almost in. Give me one more minute, and I should have us connected to the Strogg network." She said, tapping commands into the console furiously.

"Kiva, work faster! The Strogg are making another push on us!" I heard Ricky yell.

"One more minute! Just hold them off a little while longer!" She yelled back.

"Oh shit, they have a Gladiator!" I heard Joe yell. I looked down the hall to see a towering seven foot mass of flesh and steel charging towards us, armed with a rail cannon on it's left shoulder, and a large energy shield strapped to it's right arm. The thing was coming right for us.

"Ricky, distract it so I can take a shot at it!" I yelled. Ricky popped out of cover and shot at the Gladiator with his shotgun, pellets bouncing harmlessly off of it's shields. It blasted Ricky's former cover into subatomic particles. I took the opportunity to shoot the Gladiator in it's exposed head with my Railgun, blowing it apart like a baked potato wrapped in tin foil. When it went down, the Strogg who were backing it up were blow to pieces by Joe's Hyperblaster.

"Well, that went better than expected." Joe chimed in, looking at my handiwork.

"I'm running low on clips for this thing. I'll have to stick to this weaksauce blaster until I find something better." I said, putting the Railgun on my back and taking the blaster off my hip.

"We're in, guys. What should we look for?" She asked.

"Find out where we are, and see if you can locate an exit route out of here." I said, making sure the battery was still good on the blaster.

"Hmm, this is a Stroggification facility located near the north pole of Stroggoso. It seems this facility is tasked with creating a new "elite" form of Strogg, with advance unit cohesion skills. Basically, their answer to our Special Forces." Kiva said, sounding despondent.

"Is that what they turned us into? Some sort of black ops Strogg?" Ricky asked, looking at his hardsuit.

"That's what it sounds like." Joe said, shrugging.

"There's a lockdown on the facility due to our escape. They have their elites on standby for now. They're just throwing cannon fodder at us right now. If we can get to a data mainframe, I might be able to end the lockdown and we can get out of here." Kiva said, her movements on the console almost a blur.

"Where are we suppose to go? We are nowhere near and SMC forces, and I don't want to walk three hundred miles to the nearest command ship." Joe said out loud.

Another few taps later, Kiva said, "There is a hanger bay near the other end of the facility filled with Strogg fliers. We should be able to get in there once the lockdown has been lifted, and fly away."

"If we're quick enough, we can get out of here before they have a chance to get their anti-air defenses activated." Ricky said.

"Right. Anything else, Kiva?" I asked.

"There is a weapon being tested here. Details are sketchy, but this weapon appears to be some sort of black hole generator." She said.

"Whoa, where can we find that?" I heard Joe ask intently.

It's being held in a room close to the mainframe, so we should be able to pick it up on the way there." Kiva said, shutting the console off and picking up her machine gun.

"Well, I guess we better get going before the Strogg send something bigger after us." I said, waving the three of them towards me. "Let's get going."

…

The four of us have spent the last two hours searching for the control room. We ran into a few Strogg who were looking for us, but we have won so far.

I couldn't help but wonder how many people must have died here from all this mutilation. Every room had blood stained white tiles on the lower half of the floor, reaching every corner of the room. It gave each room the sickening smell of iron and...what ever else was in blood. I just hated the smell of it.

We came to a large room. A conveyor belt was moving around more of those tanks that we were in, containing more Stroggified humans. There must have been over a hundred tanks being moved at once.

"Jesus, look how many people the Strogg have taken! No wonder they never seem to run out of troops!" Joe said out loud.

"Are they all Strogg now?" I asked Kiva quietly.

"They all appear to be. No movement from any of them." She said, looking over the tanks.

It was then all the lights in the room failed, and we were plunged into darkness. After a split second, my night vision activated and I could see again.

"Dammit, power failure!" Ricky yelled, scanning all the corners of the room. I looked around, and remembered something

"_If this was a real power outage, then how come there wasn't an announcement on the intercom_?"

My answer came almost a second after the question crossed my mind. I heard one of the doors opening on the far end of the room, and I took cover. The others must have heard it too because they took cover not soon after. I looked at the contacts through my Railgun scope. They were wearing the same orange armor as us, and had what looked like odd breathing masks attached to their faces.

"Four contacts, dead ahead. It looks like they finally broke out their Black Ops units." I said silently into the comm. I received confirmation lights from the team.

"They appear to be doing a sweep. Let them get a little closer, then we ambush them." I said, putting away my Railgun and taking my Blaster back out.

The Black Ops sweeped the room, looking for any sign of us. As they came closer to our position, they began to speak in a weird garbled dialect that I could not understand. Once they got close enough, we sprang from our hiding places and jumped the Black Ops units.

The unit leading the group was killed when I blew a hole in it's chest with a charged Blaster shot. Ricky killed the one covering his flank away with a shotgun blast to the head, splattering brains and cybernetic implants all over the floor. Kiva rammed the but end of her rifle into the Strogg on the left, leaving it in a slight daze long enough for her to put a bullet into it's head. Joe slammed his Hyperblaster on the last Strogg so hard, you could hear all the bones in it's body breaking all at once.

"Eww, that's a sound I do NOT want to hear again." Kiva remarked, looking at the crushed body.

Joe didn't bother responding to Kiva's comment. Instead, he walked over and pick up one of the weapons the Black Ops were wielding. He examined it, and tossed it at me.

"Here, take this. It's a Strogg Nailgun. There should be plenty of ammo around for it." He said as I hefted the weapon.

"How did you know what it was?" I asked him.

"I used one of those during the Battle of Maryland. Good weapon. You should use it." He said blankly.

"You were at the Battle of Maryland? Were you one of the 54 survivors of the first wave?" Ricky asked him. Ricky was a historical hut when it came to war.

Joe didn't say anything. What he did instead was show us his wrist. It had the SMC Cybernetics Program logo tattoo on it. He then bent down and ripped one of the Strogg's robotic hands off.

"Does that answer your goddamn question?" He asked Ricky, throwing the hand at him. Ricky backed up several feet after seeing what Joe was capable of. Kiva looked surprised as well

"I'm...I'm sorry, Joe. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories." Ricky said, shivering.

"It's fine. This is why I signed up." He said, pointing at the scar going across his shoulder. "Now if you don't mind, we have a job to do. They know these units are down. They will sent more. Lets get going."

With that out of the way, we left through the open door and continued on our mission.

…

Two Hours Ago

Off on the USS Hannibal, Commander Reeves was trying to get permission to send out a search-and-rescue team to Delta grid to find his missing soldiers. Two hours ago, the Hannibal had lost contact with their infiltration team, all signals flatlining shortly afterwards. The higher-ups were not letting him sent out a team to look for them because they thought they were already dead.

"Corporal, still any signals from anyone in the squad?" He asked once more. He looked at Corporal, who he has been checking the signal every ten minutes. Corporal Yeng looked tired, and groaned as he checked the signal once more.

"No signal, sir." He said, flipping back to the other communications he was monitoring. "Sir, it's been two hours. I think their gone." He said with reasoning in his voice.

"They are out there. I know it. We just need to wait a little longer." The Commander said once more.

"Sir, with all due respect, there gone. If they haven't been able to contact us after this much time, they are dead. There's no use in beating a dead horse." Corporal Yeng said, sounded fed up.

"If you were in my position, you would be doing the same thing." The Commander replied, unwavered by his Corporal's argument.

The Corporal let out another loud groan. "Well, I'm not. Try to look at if from a realistic point of view. There is now way they could have lasted this long without support." Yeng said, replying to a service request.

Reeves didn't bother arguing with the man. Ten more minutes passed, and he asked about the signal once more. The part that surprised him was that there was a signal this time. Four signals to be exact.

"_Finally._" Reeves thought to himself, cracking a smile.

"Where are they?" Reeves asked the surprised Corporal, who now moved as if he had been electrically shocked.

After typing a few commands, the Corporal got a surprised look on his face.

"Uh...they appear to be somewhere near Stroggoso's north pole." Yeng replied dryly.

"What? Are you sure those coordinates are correct?" Reeves asked, eyes looking at the location.

"I'm sure, sir. All four signals are coming from the same position, and are moving." Yeng said, triple checking the coordinates.

"_Good. Now I have proof the brass can't ignore._" Reeves thought to himself.

"Contact Command. We need to get a team there now before something happens to them." Reeves said, moving to the comm station and bringing up the link. Thanks to his rank, he could bypass all the "we will transfer you." bullshit that the lowers had to go through.

The link opened, revealing a man who looked to be in his twenties. He bore a long scar on his face going from his eye socket to the bottom of his chin, no hair, glowing yellow eyes, and was wearing a suit. At first he thought he was a Strogg, but then saw the suit was covered with medals. More than he would ever get.

"General Kane, sir!" He said, saluting the man in front of him. General Kane, or Matthew Kane as he was known informally, used to be part of Rhino Squad, a elite team that was responsible for the destruction of several vital Strogg facilities. He was responsible for the destruction of both the Nexus, the Strogg communication network, and the second Makron, the Strogg's leader.

During the events however, he was captured by the Strogg and half-stroggified, only to be saved my his fellow squad members before the processes could be completed. Even after everything he had done the last two years, the Strogg were still strong, giving our forces a hard time on any mission they went on. Due to his actions and experience with the Strogg, he was shot up the chain of command until he reached the rank of General.

"At ease, Commander." Kane said, motioning for the man to put his hand down.

"I thought...well...I didn't expect you to answer the call, sir. Didn't think that someone as high up as you would answer my call." Reeves said, stuttering a bit.

"No need to be formal, Commander. Speak freely." The General said casually. Hopefully he would understand the situation.

"Well sir, I sent Badger Squad out on a simple mission to destroy a Strogg munitions depot-" Reeves said quickly.

"I'm guessing things aren't that simple now, are they?" The General said, cutting him off.

"Um, yes sir. From what we can tell, the squad was ambushed, and all signals were lost, flatlining around two hours ago. Ten minutes ago, we started receiving signals from four of the squad members. They appear to be somewhere near the north pole, and are moving." Reeves said in detail, sending the files to the General.

"You are sure these coordinates are correct?" Kane asked, looking the man in the face.

"Yes sir." Reeves said as Kane looked over the files again. A question snuck into his mind. A question that horrified him.

"Sir, you don't think they were-" Reeves started to say, but was cut off once again.

"No, they weren't stroggified, at least not yet. If they were, their ID's wouldn't be transmitting. The Strogg Neurosight disables them when activated, completing the process from human to Strogg." Kane said, pausing for a moment as if he were looking as something, then continuing.

"As of late, there have been a new form of Strogg hitting us. Some form of Black Ops, if you will. When I was captured by the Makron, it chose me as a candidate for their experimental "Elite" program, and almost became one of those bastards." He said, pausing, and then continuing.

"This appears to be the finalized version of that program, as they have been seen using tactics similar to those that were uploaded to my brain. If I had to guess, your surviving squad members may have been "selected" to become some of these "Black Ops" units." Kane said, looking back at the Commander.

"So you think you found their production facility?" Reeves asked, interested.

"That may be. I sent a team to recon the area four hours ago, but they never reported back. If it is the facility, it needs to be destroyed. But, if there are men and women still in there, we need to get them out before we can do anything." Kane responded.

"So what should do, sir?" Reeves asked.

"I'll send Rhino Squad to get your men out. Some of my old friends are in that squad." Kane said, rubbing his chin.

"Rhino, sir? Why them? Don't they have more important things to worry about than my squad?" Reeves said, confused.

"Well, number one: They are good friends of mine, and number two: they wouldn't shoot everything on sight like some of the other teams will." Kane said causally.

"Sir? Shoot on sight?" Reeves said, wondering what the General meant by that.

"That's the bad part, Commander. From what I can tell from these readings, they are in the same condition I was after my experience with the Strogg." Kane said dryly, sending the Commander the medical comparisons.

"But you said they weren't stroggified!" Reeves yelled, obviously angry.

"Technically, they are and are not at the same time. From what I can tell, they have gone through the processes, but the Neurosight implant they received hasn't been activated. They are NOT Strogg, just very damn close to being one." He said coldly. "Just like me."

Reeves motioned as if he was going to say something, but Kane stopped him.

"I'm going to get your men out, Commander. My friends know what I look like compared to a regular Strogg. They will find your men. I will contact you when we have them. General Kane out." Kane said, cutting the transmission.

"_Now we play the waiting game._"

**Author's Notes: I finally finished this chapter. I hope everyone likes it. If you played Quake 4, you obviously know who Kane is. Well, back to work! This is GIR, signing out.**


End file.
